#samebito

“Hey, Tai?” one of the folks a few people back in the queue called and the samebito looked up.

“Yeah?”

“How long’s the wait you reckon?”

He shrugged and grinned. “You’ve got maybe another ten minutes til you’re in…”

And then you were drawing level with him, and he glanced at you as you neared him.

To your surprise, he winked at you. It wasn’t the normal wink of a land creature, more of a rolling of the white of his eye, but still, you took it for what it was and tossed him a lopsided half-smile and kept on walking. Something inside you had leapt joyously at the fact that a being as powerful and undeniably beautiful - in a brutal, almost primeval kind of way - had not only bothered to notice you, but had then acknowledged you as well.

Smiling privately to yourself, you continued on your evening stroll, passing coffee shops and souvenir shops now closed for the night, and finally found yourself back at your messy apartment, with the edge taken off your restlessness and a readiness for sleep beginning to creep into your muscles.

After a week of cloudy or rainy autumn weather, it came as a pleasant surprise when the next day dawned clear but still cool. After fumbling around for some clean clothes, you thought vaguely about going and getting some coffee from one of the waterfront cafes you’d seen on your walk the previous night. You certainly hadn’t got as far as buying any in yet, and you wouldn’t make it through the morning without a hit of caffeine to help you along.

Stifling a yawn, you made your way past the club where you’d seen the samebito, and recalled his wink with a flaring warmth and another private smile. The club was closed up now; quiet and dormant, waiting for the nightlife to return with the sunset, and there was no sign of the sharkman.

The coffee at the Pier View Cafe was actually pretty decent, and you sank down into a chair outside to sip it and savour the warmth of the morning sun on your bare forearms. After maybe ten minutes, spent alternately scrolling through your usual sites on your phone and gazing off into the glittering waves in the distance, you caught sight of a massive figure leaving one of the beach-front buildings not twenty yards from where you were sat. At nearly eight feet tall and about half as wide at the shoulders, with grey skin and the head of a great white shark, there was no mistaking him. The bouncer from the previous night turned from locking the door, took three paces up the street towards you, and then halted briefly when he saw you looking at him.

Heat flushed your cheeks and you looked away awkwardly, but when you risked a look up again, you saw to your horror that he was walking over. Perhaps he thought you were stalking him? All sorts of scenarios - each one marginally more ridiculous than the last one - played through your head until you swallowed them down and took a deep breath. The samebito was standing in front of you, grinning down at you and blocking out the sunlight better than a flipping eclipse.

“Hey,” he said in a gravelly, deep voice that threatened to make you entirely inarticulate.

“Uh… Hi…?” you croaked, craning your neck up at him.

He chuckled and held out a grey-skinned, knuckly, strong hand and you shook it instinctively. “So… I saw you last night, didn’t I?” he asked warmly, and you nodded. “Didn’t fancy dancing though?” he added.

You liked the playful lilt to his voice, halfway between an accent and an undertone, and before it could render you speechless, you shook your head. “Not so much.”

Again, a rumbling laugh rolled off him. “You’re new here, aren't you?”

“What makes you say that?”

The samebito took half a step back from your table and shrugged one colossal shoulder. “Most of the real locals don’t stare at me the way you do.”

“I’m sorry,” you blurted, turning your gaze away from him.

He looked particularly handsome that morning, in a white t-shirt that showed his chest muscles off and hid practically nothing, and a pair of baggy, pale jeans. He’d cut and stitched a slit in the back of the t-shirt for his chunky dorsal fin, and it stood out as a nearly perfect triangle of smoky grey skin in the morning light.

“I… I moved here like… last week? I’ve never seen someone like you before. I didn’t mean to stare or make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s cool,” he said, ducking his head ever so slightly as if to gauge you a little better. “Listen, you’re cute and you’ve finished your drink. Will you let me get you another one?”

“Uh… I mean, I was just about to head off,” you said, gesturing vaguely and frowning, and honestly panicking just little bit. This kind of thing never happened to you. “You don’t have to. And anyway, shouldn’t I be the one offering to get you a drink after making an ass of myself?”

His grin and pointed look southwards towards your own ass spoke volumes, and you flushed darker, but he made no verbal comment, and just shook his head. “I’d like to. Don’t let me push you though. If you don’t want me to, then I’ll piss off…”

It was your turn to shake your head, and when he saw that you did really want the chance to get to know him a bit, he smiled broadly, showing all his array of serrated teeth.

“Great. What can I get you then?”

You told him and he nodded. “Man after my own heart,” he said and ducked inside the cafe, leaving you sitting in the chill breeze wafting in from offshore and wondering how you had got so lucky. Or, more accurately, what the catch would be…

He backed out of the cafe door a few minutes later, shoving it open with his perfect arse, with a cardboard takeaway cup in each hand, a brown paper takeaway bag swinging from his wrist by the handle, and a big smile on his face. When he caught you looking curiously at it, he laughed and said, “I like my sweets, ok? Oh, my name’s Tai by the way.” He looked comically from the coffee cups and then to you and said, “Help a shark out so he can shake your hand?”

Laughing, you took your cup off him and shook his hand. His skin was rough as fine-grit sandpaper, and though the grip was prodigiously strong you got the feeling he was definitely holding back.

Taking a deep breath, you told him your name and added, “You want to stay here or go for a walk?”

Tai gazed longingly down the quiet stretch of seafront and shrugged. “Walk sounds good? As long as you don’t mind if I chow down on the way? I’m starving.”

“Course not,” you said.

“So where’d you live before coming here?” he asked as you set off. “And why the hell did you move here of all places?”

“Work,” you said. “I don’t start til next week though, so I’ve got time to kill.” You tried to sip your coffee but it was still too hot, so you went on, “I lived in the city before.”

Tai shuddered dramatically and said, “Man, I couldn’t live without the sea.”

“I’m surprised you don’t actually live in the sea,” you said. “I mean… it doesn’t bother you?”

He shot you a sidelong look and said, “They don’t have TV or Wifi in the sea. Not yet, anyway. And pizza doesn’t do too well underwater either. Pizza is life…”

You snorted and he laughed with you. You liked the way he looked at you - the way his gaze lingered at the corners of your mouth and on your eyes - and you tried not to preen under his powerful stare.

“I do swim a lot though,” he added around an enormous bite of pastry before groaning. “Oh wow. They make the best Danish there,” he said, gesturing over his shoulder and flicking crumbs onto his shirt.

Feeling uncharacteristically bold, you reached up and brushed them off for him, and his smile widened. “I hate swimming,” you admitted, avoiding his gaze. “Well, I hate the water… being surrounded by it… not knowing what’s down there…” You fought off a shudder and he nodded.

“I can see that,” he said. “No, really, I can… I mean, I’m one of the things that folks don’t tend to argue with, on land or on sea, but just coz I’ve got a mouthful of pearly whites doesn’t mean there aren’t dangers out there. Still, I try and swim every morning.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded, pausing to take another bite and finish off the second croissant in the bag. “I like to race by best friends. Gotta stay sharp, you know?”

“They’re samebito like you?” you asked, trying the somewhat unfamiliar word out on your tongue. ‘Samebito’ wasn’t a word you used everyday after all.

He shook his head. “Nah, we don’t live in shoals or anything. No, Freya is a selkie and Viggo is an orca mer.”

Your eyebrows rose at that, and he chuckled another rough, happy laugh. “I know, you’d think I’d want to eat Freya, given that I’m a shark and she’s a seal - but I’m not a complete beast, I swear. We’ve been besties for years, and holy crap is she fast.” He took another sip of his coffee and groaned. “Ah that’s good. And yeah, Viggo is like a brother to me. He was involved in an accident with a fishing trawler about ten years ago, but that doesn't stop him beating me soundly almost every morning!” he laughed.

“Is he ok?” Life in the ocean seemed even more brutal than you had imagined.

Tai shrugged. “Lost his left arm and a fuck-ton of confidence, but yeah, he’s doing alright now.”

“Not all the dangers out there have teeth,” you offered quietly, turning your eyes to the relatively calm ocean on your right as you both made your way along the smooth tarmac of the seafront.

You and Tai continued to walk and chat long after he’d finished his breakfast and both of your coffee cups had been ditched in the bin. He had an odd and slightly brash sense of humour, and an open kind of confidence that drew you in and made you feel at ease around him.

The pier had all but dwindled out of sight when suddenly he glanced at his watch and cursed. “Fuck, I’ve got to be at work in ten minutes! I didn’t realise it was so late!”

“I didn’t know the club opened so early,” you ventured.

Tai shook his head. “I work part time as a swimming coach at the school on the edge of town. Got to hold down a couple of jobs if I wanna live like you landies do!” While you smiled, he added, “Listen, can I give you my number? I had fun…”

“Sure,” and in moments, the two of you had exchanged numbers and he’d promised to be in touch.

Without warning, he opened his arms and moved in for a hug before abruptly halting and asking, “Is that ok? I’m a hugger… but not everyone is…”

Shaking your head with a smile, you said, “It’s cool. Thanks though…”

The hug he gave you was polite but heartfelt, and you tried not to enjoy his looming closeness too much before he had pulled back and was jogging away with a jovial wave over his shoulder.

You watched him go, standing there for a long time with the sea breeze ruffling and messing up your hair before you followed in his wake and turned your footsteps back towards your apartment.

A few days slid by in a blur of unpacking and sorting, and getting stuff like internet and electricity contracts going, and while you were busy, you found your mind wandering back to Tai; his strong, grey hands in particular, though his muscular shoulders and arms were equally delicious. The power in his shark’s jaw must have been immense, but his smile, although toothy and broad, had been friendly and his sense of humour had kept you chuckling to yourself for days.

But there was no sign that he wanted to see you again. He didn’t call or text, and you’d sort of abandoned the idea of getting to know him better until one evening, perhaps four days after your walk along the seafront, when your phone buzzed just as you were tucking into a takeaway, with your feet up on the couch. Scrabbling around for your phone, you nearly dropped your food in your lap when you saw that the message was from Tai.

‘Hey I’m so sorry I didn’t call you,’ he began. ‘There was some drama at the club and it kind of took over my life for a bit. I know this might be super weird, but can I take you out for dinner some time? I had so much fun chatting with you the other day. Anyway, let me know either way, T x’

You weren’t used to someone being so free with their emotions and so confident about what they wanted, but it was reassuring and you replied that dinner would be great, and that you were free the next night.

‘Perfect!’ came his response. ‘Listen, I’d kind of like to surprise you, but is there anything you really wouldn’t want to do? I remember you said you didn’t like the water much so it wouldn’t involve boats or anything I promise :)!’

Anxiety did spike in your gut at the idea of a surprise date, if that was what he was suggesting, but deciding to throw caution to the wind and to start over anew here, you told him you were grateful that he remembered about your dislike of the water, and other than that, you were game for most things.

With everything sorted, he replied with a message full of emojis and exclamation marks that he was looking forward to seeing you and that he’d meet you in the centre of town the next evening since it was his night off. ‘Oh and don’t come fancy or anything - it won’t be posh…’

‘That’s… honestly a relief…’

‘Glad to hear it! See you tomorrow!!! :D x’ Again, you allowed yourself a bit of a goofy smile at the over-peppering of exclamation marks.

Wearing a smart-ish pair of jeans and your favourite t-shirt, you strode through town the next evening with a light feeling filling your chest for the first time in a long while. Things were definitely new and different here, and you just hoped that it would all turn out for the better.

A group of satyrs and fauns up ahead were laughing and joking with a pair of gnolls, the latter yipping and leaping around, and you stared openly at them as you passed, amazed at how the three species all seemed to be getting along so well. Back in the city, folks tended to let prejudices sit deeply and interactions like this would just never happen. Then again, you wouldn’t have found yourself on a date with a sharkman back in the city either.

You were still smiling to yourself about it when you saw him pacing up and down by the fountain in the middle of the square. Because of his size and unusual silhouette, he was instantly recognisable, but you supposed you were a bit ordinary and didn’t expect him to notice you until you were nearly level with him. However, he surprised you by turning his head suddenly, a little like a bird of prey, and waving expansively at you, calling your name and grinning. He had to be the most extroverted person you’d ever met.

A bit bashful, but still laughing, you joined him and he hugged you. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he drew back. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you…”

“It’s fine,” you smiled. “You look nice…” you added as you took in the jeans that hugged his muscular legs and made his arse look frankly incredible, and the dark blue t-shirt that seemed to bring out the blueish hues of his grey skin. In light of the street lamps in this part of town, his white markings seemed to glow, and you honestly thought he was one of the most beautiful creatures you’d ever laid eyes on.

“Glad you think so,” he rumbled quietly. “You wanna go? I hope you’re not afraid of heights…”

“Heights?”

He grinned down at you and said, “You’ll see. There’s plenty else to do there as well if you’re not into heights…” He sounded odd, like he was straining the point, but you let it slide. Perhaps he was as nervous as you were after all?

After a short walk across town, during which you listened to him decompressing about the drama at the club which had involved one of the patrons being harassed and some legal action being threatened, you quickly cottoned on to where he was leading you.

Music played and lights danced in the sky as you reached the fairground that had been set up on the edge of town for the harvest festival and to celebrate the end of summer. You began to laugh as he took your hand in his.

“No?” he asked, seeming to refer both to the fact that he was holding your hand and to the fair beyond. Although he had a shark’s upper body, he was still expressive and you caught the definite hint of worry in his dark blue eyes as he gazed down at you.

With a roll of your own eyes at him and a squeeze of your hand in his, you tugged him towards the fair.

“Phew,” he laughed. “You scared me for a moment there.”

“I’m sure you must go on dates all the time,” you said without really thinking, “But it’s been a while for me, ok? I just didn’t know what to expect, especially since… uh… I’ve not dated someone like you before.”

“Another guy or a shark?” he asked quietly. The sincerity in his voice was reassuring and you smiled.

“Shark,” you clarified.

“Right,” he said. “You hungry?”

“I could definitely eat,” you said. “How about there?” and you pointed to a noodle stand where a small queue was just beginning to form. It smelled amazing.

He’d just turned to look when a figure stumbled out of the haunted house ride to your right, laughing, her hand firmly held in that of the girl she was with, and when she saw Tai, she shrieked his name and practically skipped over to him, yanking the poor girl nearly off her feet.

“Freya!” he boomed, opening one arm to hug her without letting go of your hand.

“Omg!” she yipped when she saw you. “Is this him? Ah! He’s so handsome! Tai! You lucky little scrap of chum!”

You could only stand there awkwardly while Tai’s best friend cooed over the pair of you and then announced that she needed some food after the spooky ride. “You guys want to join us?” she asked brightly, her big dark eyes flitting from your face to Tai’s.

While she seemed lovely enough, you hadn’t really intended to share your date with anyone else, but to your surprise Tai immediately sensed that and said, “Uh, we were actually about to go… uh…” He gazed around and saw the ferris wheel and blurted, “Go on the wheel…”

A slow smile dawned on Freya’s face and her dark eyebrow rose. “Oh yeah?” she said. “Well don’t let me stop you, sweetheart.” And as Tai bid her and her girlfriend a good evening, you cast him a puzzled look to which he responded with a slight shake of his head.

You were still frowning curiously at him when the bar went down over your knees as you sat in the gondola, and he swallowed thickly.

“Tai?” you asked, looking up at him. Was it your imagination, or was the colouring under his chin slightly green? Perhaps it was the light of the fair below… “You ok?”

“I panicked,” he blurted.

“What?”

“I didn’t think you’d want her asking a million questions about your life just yet - I mean, I wasn’t even sure if this counted as a proper date or whatever - and so I just said the first thing that came into my mind, which was this…”

“And this is a problem because…?”

“I don’t like heights,” he said quietly as the gondola lurched backwards. “Oh gods…”

He gripped the bar so hard that you thought it was going to crumple under his strength. “Hey,” you said, reaching for his thigh and placing your palm on it. He was so tense that it was like putting your hand on a boulder. Taking advantage of the privacy of the moment, you dug your fingertips gently into the muscle. “Look at me,” you said as he stared wide-eyed into the void that was opening up beneath you.

“Freya knew,” he muttered.

“Forget her,” you chuckled. “Look at me.” And when he did, you put your other hand on his cheek and watched him heave out a gentle sigh. The gills in his neck flared wide but he leaned into your touch and laughed, the sound deep in his chest.

He leaned down and nuzzled the blunt tip of his snout against your neck. “I would kiss you,” he said gently, breath fanning across your skin, “But I can’t.”

He brought his hand to your cheek and trailed his thumb down your jaw line as he caressed you, and you felt a stirring in your cock as his fingers wandered downwards. He hadn’t even noticed that the gondola had done nearly a full rotation.

When it finally came round to getting everyone off the wheel, he seemed a lot calmer, though embarrassment had definitely washed in to replace his fear.

“Tai?” you asked as he stood near the ferris wheel with his hand on the railing, breathing deeply and steadily. “You ok?”

He laughed and shot you a sidelong look. “Yeah,” he sighed. “Just feeling a bit…”

“Queasy?”

“Foolish.”

You rapped him lightly on the bicep with the back of your fingers and grinned, “Hey, it’s nice to know that even someone like you can get a bit freaked out sometimes, you know?”

“That’s precisely the point,” he said. “I’m not used to it.”

“Ah, come on, lets have a walk,” you said, taking his hand. “Besides, I pretty much got to kiss you, so it’s not all bad.” You halted and looked up at him with mock suspicion on your face. “Unless it was all a ruse to get close to me…?”

“What? No!” he gasped, his footsteps halting. “I promise you…”

“Relax,” you said. “I was joking.”

He walked beside you for a few paces before murmuring, “You know I wouldn’t do something like that, right?”

You nodded.

Tai cleared his throat. “And actually, going back to something you mentioned earlier, I haven’t been on a lot of dates recently… or… at all.”

Now it was your turn to stop in surprise. “You’re kidding me?”

He shook his head. “Turns out apex predators give off ‘dangerous vibes’. That, and I’m nearly always working…”

“Huh,” you shrugged, still a little baffled. “I’m sorry for just assuming then…”

Tai put his arm around your shoulders and tugged you slightly off balance and into his side. “You want to go eat now?” he asked and you nodded, heading back to the noodle bar.

It was only after wandering aimlessly around the fair to walk down your food that he said, “So… did I do good?”

“With the date?” you asked and he nodded. “It’s been perfect. I honestly didn’t expect to be dating the moment I arrived in this town…”

“Did you want a break from it, or…?”

“No,” you said. “I just… didn’t look for it.”

Tai was holding your hand as the pair of you moved through the bustling, jostling people, dodging drunken revellers and excited teenagers alike. His skin was rough and cool, and his huge presence beside you in the constant ebb and flow of people was undeniably grounding.

“I guess good things just fall into your lap when you’re not expecting it,” you added.

Tai leaned low towards your ear and growled, “I wouldn’t mind having you in my lap…” and you smacked him in his solid chest, laughing. When he laughed, all his jagged teeth showed, and his eyes rolled back just a little in his head. In an odd kind of way, it was attractive, and you smiled up at him.

At a quieter corner of the fair, he paused and looked down at you. Lowering his head, he murmured, “Damn, I really wish I could kiss, you know?”

“What do samebito do instead?” you asked.

He smiled softly. “Our noses are very sensitive,” he said, and he was going to continue but he cut off suddenly when you brought your fingertips to the tip of his snout and traced a gentle circle there. A shudder ran through him and his eyes rolled back for a moment to show the whites. “Damn,” he panted. “Your touch is…” With gills flaring, he nosed you backwards until your back hit the sides of a wooden shack - the side of one of the trinket stalls perhaps - and he began to nose at your neck again.

A soft rumbling emanated from his chest and his hands wandered. He palmed your cock through your jeans and you moaned, rolling your hips a little into the touch, chasing friction. “Not here,” you gasped and he backed off, glassy eyed and nodding.

“No,” he said. “Not here.” And then he laughed, shaking his head. “Damn, you look good all ruffled like that,” he said, thumbing an arc across your cheekbone where your skin was flushed hot.

Not long after that, you agreed to head home and he offered to walk you. At your door, you thanked him for an amazing evening, and touched him again on his nose, this time with your whole palm, your fingers tracing gentle lines up and down the rough skin there. His eyes rolled again and he growled.

“When can I see you again?” he asked breathlessly. Before you got the chance to answer, he had nuzzled against your neck again, and as you leaned into the contact, he parted his jaws and very gently raked his teeth across your skin. His tongue rasped over your pulse and you gasped. “Sorry,” he added as he drew back. “I didn’t hurt you did I?”

Wordlessly you shook your head.

He grinned. “Good. You got an answer to my question or did I chase it away…?”

With a lopsided grin, you nodded. “I start work this week, but I should have some time in the evenings?”

He growled and stepped back, frustrated. “I work most nights from about six. Would Thursday work though?”

In fact, he surprised you at lunch one day, and you managed to show up early to the club to give him a quick kiss before he began his shift, and so you snatched moments here and there when you could. He also took you out the next weekend for a meal which was amazing, and afterwards he said, “Listen, I know we’ve only been going out a short while, but I wanted to do something nice for you… are you free this weekend?”

You nodded, wary but curious. Tai laughed when he saw the expression on your face. “Don’t panic,” he said, taking your slightly clammy hand in his. “I’m not proposing to you… I promise it’s just something nice…” If sharks could do puppy dog eyes, this one would be the best at it. As it was, he just tilted his head and looked at you straight on, which kind of had a similar effect.

In what had now become an instinctual replacement for a traditional kiss, you brought your nose to his and kissed it, making him shiver as always. He really hadn’t been kidding when he’d said the skin there was sensitive, and somehow it always seemed to make him short-circuit a bit when you touched him there. “Whatever you want to do, I’m game,” you said. “I trust you, and I think you’ve got the measure of me by now…”

Scraping his mind back together again after the pleasure of your touch, he nodded. “Alright. I’ll come get you and we can go from your place.”

Wondering what it was he’d got planned filled more than a couple of your spare minutes that week, for sure.

In fact, you needn’t have worried at all. When he showed up at your door, he immediately nuzzled you and he picked you up this time. He dropped the small insulated bag he had been carrying and rumbled softly. You tilted your head back, allowing him better access to you, and he placed his massive jaw around your throat. It was unconventional as greetings went, but it was a bit more exciting than a kiss on the cheek, and you’d grown to enjoy it.

When he’d drawn back, he rasped, “I can’t believe you let me do that.”

His voice was breathless with wonder, and you laughed. “Told you I trusted you. Where are we going?”

He set you back down on your feet and asked, “You ready to go? It’s not far - maybe a five minute walk?”

You pulled the door closed behind you and stepped out into the night while he picked up his bag again and held out his other hand to you. The air was chilly, it being late October now, but the stars were perfectly clear in the inky sky above and there wasn’t a breath of wind.

“So…” he said. “You remember a while back, when I told you about some drama at the club? We had this super wealthy elven model and she got into a bit of a ‘difficult situation’ with this big guy that wouldn’t leave her alone.” You listened to him, nodded, and welcomed the growling undertone in his voice as he spoke of the incident. “So I hauled this guy off her and did that thing with my teeth…”

“What thing?”

“You know, the sharky thing where I pull my lips back…”

“Show me?” you asked, knowing full well what it was he was talking about. He knew it too, and laughed, obligingly baring his teeth at you while you short-circuited for a moment…

“Anyway, I think the guy shat his pants, and she was super grateful to me. She said that if I ever wanted a favour from her, all I had to do was ask, so…” He held up a pair of keys and jangled them softly. “I called it in… She said I could use her beach-front apartment for the night. She’s away at the moment but the doorman knows we’re coming, and she said we could help ourselves to anything in the wine cooler and make ourselves at home.” He raised the cool-bag he was carrying and added, “I prepped some dinner. So long as we don’t trash anything or burn the place down, it’s ours for the night…”

“No way,” you smiled. “That’s really sweet of her.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, she’s a real sweetheart.”

The apartment turned out to be the penthouse, and it was gorgeous. Sleek, modern, and yet cosy, you stood in the doorway behind him as he stepped inside and just looked around, struck stupid by it. “Wow,” you finally breathed.

“How the other half lives, eh?” he grinned. “Come on, let’s look around.”

You didn’t get very far before Tai’s stomach was growling and he had made his way to the super fancy kitchen to start unloading the bag of food he’d brought. It was the most amazing picnic spread, and while he set about finding bowls and plates, you wandered over to the French windows and stepped outside into the chilly night. The deck was gorgeous, and there was even a small fire pit with a log store pressed up against the wall of the flat. Ducking briefly back inside, you called, “Are there any firelighters around?”

“I told you we can’t burn the place down!” he laughed.

“There’s a fire pit… does that count?”

With a fire going in the cast iron brazier and the food nearly finished, Tai sat back in his sun lounger, careful of his dorsal fin, and smiled. “Is it too early to say I’m in love with you?” he asked in an uncharacteristically shy voice, staring up at the sky.

Something about the way he said it, and about the way he looked at you every time he saw you, made you shake your head. “No,” you murmured. “I don’t think so.”

He reached across the space between your two loungers and took your hand, running his thumb over your knuckles. “Never thought I’d fall like this for a landie…”

“I love the way you say that word,” you snorted. “Makes us sound like Martians…”

“I can use the more formal ‘Landfolk’ if you’d prefer,” he said in a falsely haughty voice.

“No…”

“Come here,” he said. “You’re too far away.”

Stepping carefully over the remnants of the food and drink, you allowed him to tug you down into his lap and you lay back against his chest while he nuzzled idly at your neck and hair.

“You smell so good,” he groaned.

“Sharks have a good sense of smell, don’t you?” you asked.

“You have no idea…”

“Huh…” you said, hoping he couldn’t smell just how turned on you were in that moment. You didn’t want to move just yet.

Tai, however, had other ideas. He shifted and you felt the hard line of his cock beneath your ass, and he nudged his hips slightly upwards and groaned. “I want you,” he said. “But… I… ” And all his brash confidence suddenly seemed to crumble.

“What?” you asked, glancing up at him over your shoulder. He couldn’t blush, but his eyes rolled a bit and he looked away. “You think I don’t want you back? Don’t you remember how I was at the fair? I practically came in my pants like a horny teenager…”

He laughed. His jaw was noticeably slacker now, his eyes gleaming brightly in the low light of the fire. “I’m scared,” he whispered in a voice that made your heart lurch.

“Scared of what?”

“I don’t want to hurt you… We’re not… We’re not known for being gentle lovers…”

“I trust you.”

“That… That doesn’t help…” he said with an awkward chuckle. “I mean, it’s amazing, don’t get me wrong, but… I’m…”

“Let me guess, you’re a biter…” you grinned and he rolled his eyes. “I’m sure we can figure it out… would it help if I stayed on top? We can take it slow this time anyway…”

He gazed at you and then smiled softly, gently nudging his nose into your hand as you raised it to ‘kiss’ him. “I don’t deserve you,” he murmured into your palm, tenderly licking a little stripe over it and then up your fingers.

In little more than a few minutes you were both naked, and you got to see him properly for the first time. The patch of white began under his chin at his jaw and moved down his neck to his chest and stomach, tapering down as if to draw attention to his hardening cock. He was beautiful, and big, his tip already glistening as he watched you watching him. “Fuck,” he cursed, reaching for you. “Look at you…”

You sat back down astride him, your own cock pressed against his as you took him in your hand and rolled your hips. He threw his head back and clutched the arms of the lounger, letting out a deep, earthy growl. His hips lurched upwards as you continued to stroke him slowly, rocking your own body against him until the pair of you were slick and desperate.

His chest began to heave and as you scraped your blunt nails down his pecs and over the ridges of his abs, he opened his jaw and showed all his teeth as he began to pant rapidly.

“Fuck, that’s so good,” he moaned, leaning forwards again and enjoying the sight of you working his cock and your own in your hand at the same time. Pre-come spilled down his length as he twitched and gasped, bucking into the tightness of your grip, and he began to growl again.

“I’m… I’m close,” he said breathlessly. “Fuck, I’m so close already…” His jaws closed with a loud clack and his eyes rolled back to show the whites as he suddenly spilled over his chest and abs, his body rocking and convulsing as he came with a muted bellow.

A few seconds later and you followed him, falling forwards onto his messy chest as white heat thundered through you. He was still twitching and gnashing his powerful jaws together, eyes still rolled back, cock pulsing in your hand.

You watched him as he came down from his peak, and you couldn’t resist rocking your hips once more against his spent and sensitive cock. He grunted and his eyes rolled back to look at you.

Tai swallowed and then croaked, “I haven’t come like that in a long time…”

“Me neither,” you grinned. “You want to see what the bathroom’s like in this place?”

After a few more minutes to catch his breath, he said, “Hold on,” and you gripped him round the waist as he stood up and carried you through the apartment, pausing every now and again to nuzzle at your neck and scrape his teeth lovingly over your shoulder. When you finally made it to the bathroom, it was a while before you actually emerged, eventually clean…

—

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